Simple predictive controller for high-order systems

The paper describes a `universal controller¿ having the following characteristics. It can be quite easily adjusted to give near-optimal control of almost any single-variable plant, whether of high order or nonlinear or including pure time-delays, for small errors. The performance is insensitive to changes of the plant characteristics, and in a sense the controller is ultrastable. Provided that the plant drives are adequate, it will control the plant for large errors, such as occur when the plant is started up or shut down. Finally, the performance for random changes of plant inputs and parameters over a limited range will be near optimal; however, the effect of measurement noise cannot as yet be predicted, and would have to be investigated for each particular application.